Council Chronicle

Thursday, March 4, 2021
Log in
  • National News
  • Business & Economy
  • Technology
  • Science
  • Health
  • About CC
    • Our Team
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy GDPR
    • Terms of Use

Pages

  • About Council Chronicle
  • Contact Us
  • Our Team
  • Privacy Policy GDPR
  • Terms of Use

Recent Posts

  • Former Wife of Prolific Arizona Serial Killer Speaks Up First Time after Scottsdale Suicide June 29, 2018
  • Indiana Couple Arrested After Authorities Discovered Cruel Punishment Device in Home June 28, 2018
  • Schizophrenic Oregon Man Who Was Seen Carrying His Mother’s Head Committed to Psychiatric Facility June 27, 2018
  • Texas Lawmen Looking for Four Suspect Who Tortured Child During Home Invasion June 27, 2018
  • Retirement Home Resident Reported Fake Fire to Draw In Firefighters and Shoot Them June 26, 2018
  • Arkansas Man Kills Wife, Sticks Body In Chest Freezer Before Committing Suicide June 26, 2018
  • West Virginia Man Arrested After He Tried to Baptize Family by Drowning Them in the Bathtub June 25, 2018

NASA Curiosity Rover Discovers Traces of Continental Crust on Mars

July 18, 2015 By Melanie Quintal Leave a Comment

Email, RSS Follow

continental crust on mars

A recent analysis of lighter rock fragments from the Gale Crater of Mars points to greater similarities with rocks found on Earth. The ChemCam instrument on the Mars Curiosity Rover discovered lighter rocks with the composition of the continental crust.

The ChemCam relies on a laser that vaporizes particles in order for the spectrograph to examine the chemical composition of minerals and microstructures. The spectrograph can accurately analyze particles smaller than 1 millimeter, that is particles that are 10 times smaller than what can be seen on camera.

French and US scientists have analyzed images and the chemical makeup of 22 such rock fragments. They discovered that these light-colored magmatic rocks contain a high amount of feldspar and some traces of quartz, which makes them extremely similar to TTG (Tonalite-Trondjemite-Granodiorite). TTG is a type of rock of a granitic composition indigenous to Earth, that can be found here since the Archean era 2,5 billion years ago.

Roger Wiens, the lead scientist on the ChemCam instrument from Los Alamos National Laboratory, explains the similarities of these lighter rocks with the ones that are found in Earth’s crust: “Along the rover’s path we have seen some beautiful rocks with large, bright crystals, quite unexpected on Mars. As a general rule, light-colored crystals are lower density, and these are abundant in igneous rocks that make up the Earth’s continents.”

The Gale crater, where the Curiosity Rover landed, was formed approximatively 3,7 billion years ago and contains traces of even older rocks. It presents a cut of around 2 miles down into the crust. That provides a great opportunity to look into the forming process of the planet and discover the common points with the forming process of our planet.

The information gathered by the Curiosity Rover is of vital importance because such information could not have been observed externally by the satellites that orbit the planet.

There is a great difference between the newly analyzed rocks and the basaltic rocks we have long believed make up for Mars’ geological composition. So far we believed that Mars is predominantly made of rocks like the ones that form Earth’s oceanic crust.

This discovery confirms that Mars has a primitive crust very similar to Earth’s and such, that the similarities between the Red Planet and ours are greater than we believed them to be. The analysis of these rock fragments led us one step further into understanding the development of the Red Planet and its geological composition.

Photo credits: IBC World

Email, RSS Follow

Filed Under: Science

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 18 other subscribers

Recent Articles

ethics in dictionary highlighted

NIH Will Examine Ethical Problems of One of Their Studies

March 27, 2018 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

biomutant character

Eleven-Minutes Long Biomutant Trailer Prepares You for Amazing Gameplay and Mechanics

August 26, 2017 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

intime alibaba

Intime May Be Acquired By Its Founder And Alibaba

January 11, 2017 By Jesse Skelton Leave a Comment

Newborn baby

A Woman Gave Birth to Baby After Fertilizing Frozen Ovary

December 16, 2016 By Lee Raulin Leave a Comment

Parkes radio telescope

Hunting Aliens with Parkes Radio Telescope

November 11, 2016 By Ben Beckstrom Leave a Comment

man suffering from election season stress

Stressed Out? Here Are 7 Ways to Get Rid of Election Season Stress

October 19, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

Disney World wants to prevent fraud.

Disney World prevents fraud by scanning children’s fingers

September 8, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

artificial intelligence

How will the Artificial Intelligence will affect our life by 2030?

September 3, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

opera sync

Opera Sync resets passwords after it was hacked

August 30, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

viping

Why are teens viping – flavours or nicotine?

August 26, 2016 By Dustin Smith Leave a Comment

sex abuse

Doctors in sex abuse cases return to work. What happens with their victims?

August 25, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

affection

Affection or food – which is more important for a dog?

August 19, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

Chipotle restaurant

Chipotle to Open its First Burger Joint

July 30, 2016 By Ben Beckstrom Leave a Comment

Chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A Rolls Out Protein-Packed Grill Breakfast Sandwich

July 20, 2016 By Ben Beckstrom Leave a Comment

Related Articles

  • Two neutron stars colliding, forming a gravitational wave

    Are Colliding Wormholes the Real Producers of Gravitational Waves? (Study)

    Jun 15, 2018
  • Trepanation

    Ancient Peruvian Doctors Better at Trepanation Than Civil War Surgeons, New Study Finds

    Jun 13, 2018
  • Songbirds

    UK and Germany Biologists Closer to Understanding How Two-Way Communication Works in the Animal Kingdom

    Jun 6, 2018
  • nile crocodiles on white sand in a museum

    Crocodiles Listen to Bach as Researchers Study Their Brains in New Experiment (Study)

    May 9, 2018
  • view of coast from isle of skye

    Scientists Discover Rare, Giant Dinosaur Tracks in Scotland (Study)

    Apr 5, 2018
  • Intelligent Vehicles

    Stanford to Spearhead Intelligent Vehicles Revolution with Cars that can See Around the Corner

    Mar 7, 2018
  • Floating robot and ISS

    Floating Robot To Join the ISS Crew in June

    Mar 5, 2018
  • exploding star

    First Ever Photo of a Star Exploding Captured by an Amateur Photographer

    Feb 26, 2018
  • little skate at the bottom of the ocean

    Did Ancient Fish Start Walking Before Even Leaving the Ocean? (Study)

    Feb 12, 2018
  • Mayan pyramid in Guatemala

    Laser Technology Reveals More Maya Ruins in Guatemala

    Feb 4, 2018

Categories

  • Breaking News
  • Business & Economy
  • Entertainment
  • Health
  • National News
  • Nature
  • Science
  • Technology
  • World News

Copyright © 2021 CouncilChronicle.com

About · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy · Contact

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more.